Leader’s Guide.
Firstly let me say that there is no one set of leader’s procedures or techniques that suit every situation. Discussion group leadership has a lot to do with being sensitive to the group and each individual member of it.
One of the weekly groups that I have been leading for about 12 years has two rules.
1. No question is stupid. Whenever I remind group members of this rule I always say that if someone asks a question they just may be a little more courageous than others who have the same question but don’t feel confident enough to ask it.
2. We are not in the group to correct or dismiss any other person's ideas, beliefs, doubts or attitudes. We may not agree but we do not presume to say that person is wrong or misguided. We take all opinions seriously and as important.
In every group there are talkers and non-talkers. Those who don’t talk are not necessarily non-participants. Often I have been told by non-talkers that they have something on the tip of their tongue to say but they have not been quick enough when a short silence occurs and by the time there is a break long enough for them to make their contribution, the subject has moved on and they don’t feel comfortable saying what they had planned.
One technique I have found to assist the non-talkers is to ‘Go round the ring’. In this process you start with a person you think may have something to say anyway and ‘Go round the ring’ from them, giving everyone a chance to say something. If you use this process make sure that you make it absolutely clear that anyone can ‘Pass’. That means that they don’t have something to say at that point. Make very sure that if someone does say ‘Pass’ that you quickly affirm that with a ‘That’s fine.’ or ‘That’s good’ and thank them anyway and move on reasonably quickly. You might suggest that if they think of something to say later that would be good, and if not, that’s good as well.
I believe a good way of beginning each group meeting is to ‘share’, answering a non-threatening question like ‘What is your favourite TV program?’ or ‘What was the most interesting thing you did last week?’ or ‘Where would you like to visit if you had the time and money?’ or ‘Which Christmas do you remember in your youth?’ or ‘What was/is your favourite book or film?’. Often this sharing time can not only ‘break the ice’ but it can also enable group members to get to know each other better with shared information.
To lead a group using these study resources you can use different approaches. You could vary the process for different studies.
1. The content of the study resource can be read out aloud by a member with breaks every so often to give members an opportunity to respond by asking questions or expressing opinions.
2. It could be taken for granted that the members have read the content of the particular study and the group can go straight to the questions. Don’t necessarily start with the first question. Make your own choice.
3. The leader can decide to highlight some aspect of the study or one part of the booklet’s content and have a discussion about it.
4. The leader could pick on one of the questions or create some different question/s and centre the group discussion on that.
Sometimes it may be appropriate to ask the members of the group to ‘pair off’ and for say 5 minutes to discuss a specific question. It is not necessary to always have a ‘reporting back’ to the whole group but if the leader thinks that would be helpful then go for it.
With this set of studies you will find they are not all of the same length. Some may take more than one session to complete, some less. I find that many group leaders think they have not accomplished what they should if they have not completed a whole study in each session. I disagree with this. If a ‘side track’ arises and it seems interesting to the group or it is important to some members or even only one member, I believe it can be important to spend group time on it. This is a case where sensitivity to the group and all its members comes into play.
Important
In many of the studies there are far too many questions to discuss in one meeting. The leader should decide which question/s are to be discussed or ask the members to decide. There are enough questions to give groups a wide choice.
I believe it is important to start and finish on time. Some people have tighter schedules than others and it can be dangerous to assume that everyone has more time than the time originally allotted.
Study No.6 is divided into 6 different sections that specifically deal with different ways of interpreting the Bible and Bible background. If at all possible it is important for group members to attend all these particular meetings. The last six studies are units in themselves, as are the first few.
It is important to have a full set of study resources (printed from the website) available for each member of the group and it can be helpful for members to read the specific resource before coming to the meeting. If members are willing to ‘prepare’ that can be a great help.
Having printed the resources from the website, all these may be distributed at the first group meeting or they may be given out progressively as each meeting occurs. It would be appropriate for the group to decide.
There is no copyright to any of the text of these studies so they can be copied but not published, as the need arises.
I hope you find these studies stimulating and useful.
Grace and Peace, George Stuart
Print Booklet (Download and print double-side, flip on short edge) The text above has the text of the bookblets edited somewhat and because there are many pictures in the booklets, all reference to them has been omitted.